Holiday Traditions

Happy Belated Thanksgiving to all my friends, both old and new! If you are here from the follower's fest, welcome!
I took a few days off from blogging to concentrate on my family the past few days. We are set to have our THIRD Thanksgiving this afternoon. I am so blessed to have such a large extended family and get to partake in three Thanksgivings (especially since my duties include minimal cooking)!

We did a little bit of shopping yesterday (nothing crazy) and a bit more today. I was able to check a few things off my list. Every year we try to sponsor a local child and this year Jaxson got to help pick out the child's presents. It was fun to teach him that giving can be just as great as receiving. 
Tomorrow we are headed to the festival of trees , which has kind of become a new tradition for our little family. Which brings me to my original post idea. I thought I would share some of our family traditions with you and then you can share some of yours with me. I love hearing about other people's traditions.

- My husband and I started the tradition of hiding the pickle ornament (don't know where this originates from..... I have heard it was a German tradition) from each other. Generally whoever finds it first gets to open the first present. Since it was just the two of us for a long time we hid two!

- At Thanksgiving we always say what we are thankful for... I think most families do this. :)

- We let the kids open one present from us on Christmas Eve, which is always some sort of holiday pajamas.

- On Christmas morning my step dad turns on the train which runs around the tree and then plays Christmas music. This is our signal that we can get out of bed and come down.

- Santa always fills our stockings with wooden brain teaser puzzles. I can never solve them, my husband always does!

- We try to decorate a gingerbread house every year. This year the kids will actually get to help and I am  so excited to let them go wild and decorate.

- We generally spend an afternoon baking all sorts of yummy treats which usually includes peppermint bark, cranberry orange muffins, brownies, banana bread, rice krispie treats and sometimes cookies.

- We always, even if money is tight, budget to sponsor an individual child and a family. We feel we have been blessed with so much that we need to give back. We always try to sponsor an older child because I feel like sometimes they get overlooked.

- We take a trip to a local church camp where they decorate with over one million lights! So fun to see the kids' faces light up with wonder.

- Our list of "must see" holiday movies has really grown over the years. I love the classics and my hubby likes some of the newer movies. Usually takes us all month to get through all of them!

So, what are some of your traditions? I would love to hear them!